Judges announced
Continuing the tradition of attracting professional judges to the Somerset Bendigo Bank Art Awards, this year we have two judges;
Beata Batorowicz
Associate Professor USQ, Spatial Construction Visual Arts
Beata Batorowicz is an Associate Professor in Sculpture and Coordinator for the Doctor of Creative Arts and Bachelor of Creative Art Programs at the University of Southern Queensland (USQ). She is a contemporary artist exhibiting nationally and internationally, with substantial cross-university practice-led research experience in the arts. Born in 1978 in Poland and arriving in Australia at the age of five, Batorowicz predominantly works in textiles and sculptural installation that draws on symbolically charged narratives, such as fairy tales and folklore, to highlight the power sub textual stories play in subverting grand narratives of Western history. Her specifically work explores visual narratives and perceptions regarding cultural history, immigration and gender.
Batorowicz’s art career began with Daughter Aid (1999); a body of work that was shown in key exhibitions nationally including: Primavera, MCA, (2002); Fraught Tales, NGV (2004); Colonial to Contemporary, Griffith University Art Gallery (2006); and in the solo exhibition Anti Big Daddy Art, IMA, (2003). Batorowicz’s work is noted for its feminist agency and has been shown in group exhibitions including: La femme Domestique, QUT Art Museum (2007); Uncanny, Artspace, Auckland (2005); and Readymade, IMA (2003), where Batorowicz collaborated with the renowned New Zealand artist, Lisa Reihana. Batorowicz’s work was also featured in the multimedia documentary Re-enchantment (2011 DVD, and e-book adaption 2014) that included artists Kiki Smith, Cindy Sherman and Rosemary Valadon.
Batorowicz’s recent projects like Dark Rituals, Magical Relics (2018-19), Antipods (2015), Tales Within Historical Spaces (2012) have secured key funding including Australia Council for the Arts (2018) and Social Sciences and Humanities Research (2015) and Arts
Queensland (2011). Batorowicz has published in Arts and Humanities in Higher Education (2018), Holocaust Studies (2018) and Australian Art Education (2017) and is also a recipient of two university -wide Citations for Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning in 2016 and 2018 at USQ.
Doug Spowart
Visual Artist
Doug Spowart is a cross-disciplinary visual artist with a practice encompassing photography, photobooks, artists’ books and digital media. Spowart has completed PhD studies in the visual arts and has presented lectures and judged at national and international conferences and awards. In 2007 he co-founded the Centre for Regional Arts Practice with Victoria Cooper as a way to connect with and provide advocacy for regional artists. Doug and his partner Victoria publish reviews and commentaries on art and life on their Blog https://wotwedid.com/ which has over 85,000 views.
